UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.

As for ESPN. Damn right they are mad. they have thier own sports news programs to take care of. They pay the UFC to show thier shit. They are partners.

To compare it to SKY. If a premier league football team had some huge breaking news, SKY would be fecking pissed if they didnt tell them before announcing it to other news outlets. So they should be. They pay the fecking teams enough money.

Ok, so ESPN are not such a big deal, but they represent the UK market and no doubt pay the UFC a tidy sum of cash. To not get CC'd in the first batch of emails is embarrassing. Basically, this shows that ESPN's standing is not very high and the UFC has other plans for the future.

I hate SKY. Please dont go to SKY. Pleeeeeeeease.

ESPN and the UFC don't have any partnership whatsoever in the U.S. and Canada... They have the U.K. distribution rights, that doesn't mean a thing in the U.S. media market.

Here's how much the broadcast people at ESPN know about MMA:

Rogers Sportsnet has more right to be pissed about this than ESPN (who, listening to the MMA people at ESPN, aren't even pissed) but that would also be stupid.

Long story short, the BE piece was another in a long line of hatchet job pieces by Snowden. He criticized Helwani, White's wardrobe (say what you will, but White's "man of the people" approach has endeared him to the vast majority of fans, he gets mobbed by fans in a way that Roger Goddell and David Stern never would) and pretty much everything else he could think of. Snowden is a grade A hack who only sees which way the wind is blowing and goes the other way to get readers arguing. Hack sportswriters have been doing it forever.

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I don't know anything about UK TV or anything but if it's that big of a hurdle where it's either ESPN or SKY and if SKY really sucks (I have no idea if it does or what it even is) than Zuffa should consider opening it's own network to broadcast both UFC and Strikeforce events. In the US all of the major sports leagues have their own networks (MLB,NHL,NFL,NBA) they don't all broadcast every game but they do broadcast some games. Hell even some college conferences have their own network, the Big Ten for example. It's not like Zuffa's hurting for money.

ESPN needs to STFU. Seriously if they want to cover big stories like this with MMA they need to start covering smaller stories. I see all the time on SportCenter the tiny, minute shit that they cover for EVERY other sport. Yet MMA is nothing but the smallest blip on the show. Hell the last thing I saw on SC about MMA was something abuot Bisping spitting on Rivera's corner and how all the pundit's thought it was "Gross and Barbaric." There was no coverage of the Fights that night at all, Just Bisping spitting. There were what, 9 fights that night including a BJ Penn/Fitch draw that had the MMA world in flames, a KO of one of the LW divisions most honored prospects and the upset of Ebersole/Lytle and not a damn one of them gets so much as a mention?

**** you ESPN. How about you recognize MMA as a real sport worthy of just as much attention as the rest of your sports and THEN they will come to you with news. But when you give more air time to the NFL in it's god damn offseason the night of a UFC PPV card you can expect to be shunned.

ESPN needs to STFU. Seriously if they want to cover big stories like this with MMA they need to start covering smaller stories. I see all the time on SportCenter the tiny, minute shit that they cover for EVERY other sport. Yet MMA is nothing but the smallest blip on the show. Hell the last thing I saw on SC about MMA was something abuot Bisping spitting on Rivera's corner and how all the pundit's thought it was "Gross and Barbaric." There was no coverage of the Fights that night at all, Just Bisping spitting. There were what, 9 fights that night including a BJ Penn/Fitch draw that had the MMA world in flames, a KO of one of the LW divisions most honored prospects and the upset of Ebersole/Lytle and not a damn one of them gets so much as a mention?

**** you ESPN. How about you recognize MMA as a real sport worthy of just as much attention as the rest of your sports and THEN they will come to you with news. But when you give more air time to the NFL in it's god damn offseason the night of a UFC PPV card you can expect to be shunned.

Wow. what a crazy contrast! In the UK, ESPN give us all kinds of MMA programming. Its the only choice we have. From the sounds of it, ESPN is not well regarded across the pond! lol.

They have an MMA program here but it's on at like 2am and only an hour long (MMA Live), once a week. That's 100% horse shit. With this breaking news just happening yesterday, that means ESPN wouldn't even give it full coverage until SATURDAY. That's an entire week for one of the biggest stories in the history of MMA (IMO, the UFC now has no real level competition). If the NFL, NBA or MLB had done this (bought out another league that was gaining ground onthem, like the NFL/AFL) then ESPN would have had a week long crazy fest about it an dhad nothing BUT stories about it. When a team wins a game in the NFL/NBA/MLB here they show scores, highlights, breakdowns etc. Even before then they have breakdowns and interviews for it every day. That happens for like 8 games every week in the NFL. Yet for a UFC PPV card they just show Michael Bisping spitting on someone. Not fight highlights, no post fight interviews, nothing from the press conference, nothing. They show no build up to the PPVs (even though there are like 2 per month, not 8 per week) or have any interviews with fighter before hand. They usually don't even recognize it as a sport. Every time I see the UFC on ESPN it's followed closely by something with the words "Brutal", "Barbaric", "Ridiculous", "Disgusting" and etc. ESPN needs to pull their heads out of their asses if they think that an organization as big as the UFC will come to someone with news when they constantly berate and shit on them every time they have the opportunity to have news on them.

They have an MMA program here but it's on at like 2am and only an hour long (MMA Live), once a week. That's 100% horse shit. With this breaking news just happening yesterday, that means ESPN wouldn't even give it full coverage until SATURDAY. That's an entire week for one of the biggest stories in the history of MMA (IMO, the UFC now has no real level competition). If the NFL, NBA or MLB had done this (bought out another league that was gaining ground onthem, like the NFL/AFL) then ESPN would have had a week long crazy fest about it an dhad nothing BUT stories about it. When a team wins a game in the NFL/NBA/MLB here they show scores, highlights, breakdowns etc. Even before then they have breakdowns and interviews for it every day. That happens for like 8 games every week in the NFL. Yet for a UFC PPV card they just show Michael Bisping spitting on someone. Not fight highlights, no post fight interviews, nothing from the press conference, nothing. They show no build up to the PPVs (even though there are like 2 per month, not 8 per week) or have any interviews with fighter before hand. They usually don't even recognize it as a sport. Every time I see the UFC on ESPN it's followed closely by something with the words "Brutal", "Barbaric", "Ridiculous", "Disgusting" and etc. ESPN needs to pull their heads out of their asses if they think that an organization as big as the UFC will come to someone with news when they constantly berate and shit on them every time they have the opportunity to have news on them.

ESPN in America is biased towards and against certain sports. MMA is basically non-existant to them. They show the results of certain fights on their bottomline but very rarely show highlights and if they do it's only a big KO and that's it, they don't talk about it or break it down like they do with other sports.

Even hockey doesn't get anything on sportscenter a few highlights here and there but that's it maybe bring Barry Melrose in for a 2 minute segment once a week. The only time they show soccer besides the world cup is when there's some crazy ass goal they don't even highlight the whole match. Right now college basketball dominates because of march madness but before the last few weeks sportscenter is 90% NBA and NFL. They barely talk about golf now that Tiger Woods isn't winning anymore and when they do talk about golf they talk about Tiger and why he isn't winning. ESPN should cover ALL sports and not just the ones they personally watch. Worst of all in a 60 minute sportscenter they'll cover and break down the same NBA or NFL story 3 or 4 different times and beat it into the ground completely.